why is fascism on the rise? maybe 1 reason is bcs certain elements of the left have adopted philosophies, tactics & sensibilities (from extreme nationalism to trolling) once universally rejected because of their historic association w fascism & normalised them.
Just a thought.
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Dave, literally doing a uni module on direct action, protest and revolt atm and you have written some of the key texts for it and this tweet makes no sense to me in light of what I've been reading 
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the stuff I'm describing in the direct action book is (largely) the exact opposite of what I've been complaining about here. I said "elements" in the left. Obviously not the ones I like!
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as for extreme nationalism, the point is the liberal left, especially, & some elements of the radical left, are just fine with extreme nationalism as long as it isn't their own
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Could another reason be that certain elements of the Left have gotten so completely wrapped up in identity politics that they hold the actual working classes in contempt?
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well, that definitely overlaps
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perhaps, but we shouldn't underestimate the role of the universities
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It's the right who have co-opted left language and aesthetics to take advantage of the inherent failures of capitalism to gain power while the left have been by and large made impotent in the liberal western mainstream for the past decades.
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well they have, but they've also found it easier to do because the left has already adopted certain things from the far right and made them seem just like normal radical politics
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I think a certain stream of leftist discourse, which believes there are no truths & everything is power, acts like winning arguments is everything and any means are appropriate to do it, embraces identity as the only reality etc, resembles fascism in many respects
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The reasons for the rise Fascism are always the same. The powerful & the wealthy are feeling threatened, so as always, they promote extreme authoritarian politics for protection. Foolish people then tend to blame problems on the wrong enemy.
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the two explanations are not mutually exclusive!
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I said one reason. If you state it's outrageous by definition to accept that your own actions might have had any terrible unintended consequences, you're 1% of the way to fascism already in my own estimation
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1. I said one reason, 2. it hardly denies responsibility on their part. Sounds like it's you who turns into an angry white person the moment anyone even suggests your identity group might "own its own shit" even to the extent of acknowledging a tiny degree of responsibility
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I disagree, but perhaps that’s because I’m in the US. Over here, the left is far too conciliatory. We play “nice guy” and let the right control the conversation.
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I totally agree about that! I'm talking about philosophically (Nietzschean doctrines of there is no truth but only power combined with identity politics) & in terms of internal debate (normalisation of interpersonal viciousness
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actually no, I loathe Blairites, but I was specifically thinking of a certain Nietzschean strain in leftist thought especially when it gets entangled in identity politics but not only
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Can you give some examples of how:
1. The left has adopted those elements; and
2. The left did so before the fash did?
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I didn't say the left did so before the fash did I said the opposite
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Specifically which significant left social forces have adopted things associated with fascism like extreme nationalism or 'trolling'? Genuinely struggling to think what you're referring to here
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It's certainly undeniable that the rise of the far right has been hugely aided by parts of *the centre-left* aping right-wing rhetoric on nationalism, immigration, empire, 'legitimate concerns' etc, but it doesn't seem like that's what you mean here?
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well this would be a long history to reconstruct
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Strangely enough, this is the argument made by Canada's former conservative prime minister in his new book.
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I doubt it's really quite the same argument! But I'd be curious to know what he says. I
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THhis is just as much an issue in the American right, no? Was the trail blazed by the left?
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on the few occasions I've talked to white nationalists, they make arguments almost identical, only cruder, to those made by 1. the Nietzschean "there is no truth only power" academic left, 2. aggrieved identity language. But then fascists always talked this way.
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not what I was particularly thinking of no
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The left became arrogant and out of the touch. We, 'the left', begun to think we are morally superior and because of that, we don't even need to be clear, to discuss openly complex questions, or even be sympathetic to right-wing people.
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all this is probably true but somewhat tangential to what I was talking about
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David, no, this is a bad take.
Trolling, etc, have existed as part of status-quo-loving reactionaries long before they were adopted by any part of the left.
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that was my point
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this is some bogus dead-end stuff. evoking "the left" in this way with no regard to specificity but just loose polemic is a spiked online kind of rhetoric. i get that ppl are mean to you online a lot & i'm sure that's shit but this isnt a basis for discerning contemporary fascism
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can't read very well can you? The passage said "certain elements of the left" so the only one invoking "the left with no regard to specificity" is you. Actually I'm talking about a Nietzschean "there is no truth only power" strain but you can't write a whole history in one tweet
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I think it's the antidote to the rise of the left, and having to to come out from under the cover of the centre to protect itself.
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